St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-18
THE LIFE OF A SULTAN.
What the Mohammedan Monarch
Finds to Amuse Him.


As soon as breakfast is finished the
sultan disposeS himself to attend to the
| business of the day. He reads no papers
and knows nothing of what is going on
except what his cOurtierS tell him what
they like, and so distort all else that he
is a simple tool in their hands. When
any event of Importance takes place in
any country, they turn matters about SO
adroitly as to make him order that this
or that shall be done, when it has al
ready been done without his interven-
ton, but he is then made to believe that
he is responsible for the whole of the
change in the political world.
The sultan, believing his power absO-
lutte, does not hesitate to order anything
done that his cIurtiers tell him to do,
and he is made to feel that he is so near
divine that he could hardly sin no mat
ter what he did. He is as capricious as
child, and is the most complete puppet
in the hands of his cOurtierS that could
exist. The chief eunuch and chamber
lain virtually hold the power and the
peace of Europe in their hands. How,
will be seen latter.
After all the business of the day is
disposed of the sultan says another
prayer, takes a lunch and goes to his
bath, at which six other female slaves
attend him. None of these are wives or
subject to his will and caprice. No
man is allowed to lay his unhOly hands
upon the Sultan's sacred person. After
this bath comes the MONDAY 80 meal,
which consists of from fifteen to
eighteen courses, served in pots and
kettles without dishes, and eaten by the
sultan with sleeves rolled up to the
elbows and while seated OH a divan.
Between times and after dinner he
drinks coffee, eats nuts and sweet
meats and smokes, seeing persons other
than the chamberlain, chief eunuch and
his slaves in attendance.
1t is a mistake to suppose that the sui
tan passes his time in the harem, for, as.
matter of fact, he rarely enters there
at all, and then only for few minutes.
His imperial dignity would be sacrificed
If he did. The eunuch manages matters.
in the harem like clOckwOrk, and the
wives have names such as Lady Monday,
Lady Tuesday, etc, and each is pre-
Sented in her turn, though there is al
ways a favorite, who becomes a great
power, and one worthy of being in
directly courted Ivy crowned heads of
distant countries. Lady Mary Montague
really was the head of the Turkish ma
ton, as far as she wished, while in Con-
stantinOple, as she made friends with
the favorite wife, and through her OBJ
tanned whatever she wanted, for the sui
tan cannot refuse anything to the wife
who has shared his room for the night.
Once in while the sultan will drive
to visit one of his numerous kiOsks, or
country houses. or go on an OStenSible
hunting expedit on, but they all seem to
prefer life of utter self-indulgence and
ease, enlivened with their gymnastic
prayers. Sometimes the caprice will
seize him to start for kiosk in the mid
die of the night, with one of his wives
following in another carriage. There
are always six officers whose duty it is
to be ready for these midnight occasions.
All Su1tanS are equally capriciOuS in this
matter.
At bedtime the sultan finds waiting
patiently i'll his room the wife chosen
for him by the ennuch, and she must re
main standing until the six slaves have
undresSed him and put him in bed.%The
same six never perform the service but
once day. Therefore, if the sultan
undreSseS dozen times. there must al
turn, and these. with all the other slaves
and servants, make up an enormous
retinue of almost useless persons.
The Sultan has over 5000 souls at
tached in some manner or capacity to
the palace and in his personal service,
aside from the soldiers, and the amount
of money the Sultan orders spent daily.
would bankrupt England in a month,
only as he is not very good at calculat-
ing and his chief .eunuch, chamberlain
and treasurer are, they put their heads
together to cut down everybody's ex-
penses but their own, and of late years
an effort has been really made toward
wife must have her own separate es-
tablishment. and each as good as the
other, and each new child its separate
nurse and tutor. and all the caprices of
the Sultan and his imperial family must
be humored.